Fifteen years and five albums into one of modern rock’s most enduring collaborations, SLASH FT MYLES KENNEDY AND THE CONSPIRATORS, also known as SMKC, return today with the new single and official music video, “Flying Blind.” The anthemic track is the first taste of a powerful new chapter for the band and serves as the title track from its highly anticipated fifth studio album, FLYING BLIND, arriving worldwide Feb. 26, 2027, via Gibson Records.
Recorded largely live with longtime producer Michael “Elvis” Baskette at Studio Barbarosa in Florida, the 12-track album captures SLASH on guitar and pedal steel, MYLES KENNEDY on vocals, TODD KERNS on bass, BRENT FITZ on drums, and FRANK SIDORIS on rhythm guitar at their most immediate, instinctive, and tightly connected. The band completed the bulk of the record in approximately one week, often recording two songs a day with the musicians performing together in the same room.
“It’s a really fun, kind of spontaneous rock ’n’ roll record,” says SLASH of FLYING BLIND. “It’s very straightforward and down-to-earth and raw.”
Listen to “Flying Blind,” out today across all digital platforms, and watch the music video, shot on location at The Viper Room in Los Angeles and directed by John Harvatine IV HERE. Pre-save, add and order the album FLYING BLIND HERE.
Created spontaneously during pre-production, “Flying Blind” began when SLASH introduced a riff as the musicians were preparing to rehearse. The song developed quickly, combining SMKC’s unmistakable hard-rock drive with a soaring melody and immediate hook that ultimately made it the natural choice to introduce the album.
SLASH explains, “Created in the studio while we were standing there in pre-production, a riff came to me and started developing. I had nothing of that song prior to those guys coming in, and then we started up a night of rehearsal and played that riff. It came together really quickly. As for it being the first single, you never know what the first single is going to be until you’ve recorded it. When I started thinking about it, ‘Flying Blind’ just seemed to have the right kind of melodic sensibilities and a hook to make it single material.”
Following is the track listing for FLYING BLIND:
1. “Avarice and Greed”
2. “Good Time Girl”
3. “Thrill Seeker”
4. “One of Your Kind”
5. “Flying Blind”
6. “Looking for a Miracle”
7. “Sweet Kill”
8. “Here in Babylon”
9. “Living the Dream”
10. “(Don’t) Thread the Needle”
11. “Rev My Heart”
12. “Stem the Flow”